How I plan to vote (in CA) [Prop 63–65, 67]
I’ll focus on ballot props here, because I still don’t think there’s a good way to evaluate candidates. Polinav, once it’s mature, can help, but there’s still a long way to go to make our democracy work for the people. Ballot propositions, though, are direct ways for CA residents to enact real change, so here are my thoughts on them in 4 parts.
For help picking your President, ProCon.org has a quiz with 70+ yes/no questions to help match you with the different candidates.
For info on other candidates, the League of Women Voters does the best job (not necessarily great) getting information on candidates.
For ballot props, I’ve done most of my research on Ballot.FYI & Ballotpedia.org
Prop 63: even stricter gun control
My stance: NO
Hah, honestly I can’t come to an actual decision on this, so that’s the main reason I’m going to vote no. I am generally for smart gun control, but with such a variety of different measures in this one prop, it’s a little too much for a regular citizen like me to decide on.
Like honestly, a lot of these measures seem fairly good on the surface, but there are some holes for me. For one, it seems that the federal government doesn’t do a great job with permitting/licensing. Time-wise and accuracy-wise. I don’t know what’s going on over there, but let’s spend the money necessary to fix that system first.
The one idea that I’m outright against here is the retroactive banning of something someone owned 16+ years ago (large capacity magazines). I do not think large capacity magazines should exist in consumer products and am glad that it’s illegal right now, but this crosses a line for me.
Some may have a more absolute stance on gun control, but I do agree with the stance that it’s not the guns that kill people, but that people kill people. At the same time, I am all for smart gun control, but I don’t particularly agree with all of these measures and am not sure what the effect of the actual execution will be.
Prop 64: legalizes recreational marijuana
My stance: YES
I am generally for the legalization of marijuana. I won’t really go into all the reasons why per say, but will add the caveat that one restriction that I’d like for marijuana if it continues to legalize across the country, is that a single marijuana company can not operate across state-lines nor be a subsidiary or related to any other marijuana company in a different state.
Basically, the one thing I don’t want happening during marijuana legalization is the creation of Big Weed. I feel that with our vice industries, it’s okay to put some limitations on their size and hence, influence (honestly, I feel the same way about a lot of different industries, such as banking).
Prop 65/67: plastic bag ban + if banned, who keeps the fee?
My stance: NO on 65, YES on 67
Prop 67 is about “should we ban plastic bags or not?” I think we should. I know that environmentally speaking, reusable bags may have questionable benefits over their disposable brethren, when the actual usage of the reusable bags is taken into account, but for me, it’s more of a values statement. I want to live in a culture that values high quality products and wants to keep using them more than one where we use lower quality, more convenient, disposable types of products.
Prop 65 has a provision where if it gets more votes than Prop 67, it can potentially overturn Prop 67. Prop 65 is designed to appeal to environmentalists as well, since it diverts the bag fee from grocers to an “environmental fund”. Interestingly enough, the American Progressive Bag Alliance is the one who put both propositions on the ballot. That fact and how Prop 65 is worded/designed, makes me think that Prop 65 is designed to overturn Prop 67 (or at least further stymie efforts in the courts to ban plastic bags…when the public isn’t as civically engaged).
